An Ohio woman infected with the CCP virus gave birth to a healthy baby boy while she was in a medically induced coma.
Megan Sites of Selina, Ohio, was pregnant when she was started to show severe COVID-19 symptoms in late March.
“She started with a cold and fever, and within 24-hours of talking to her, it got so much worse,” her brother Shaun Jefferies told WHIO via video chat.
More than two weeks ago, Sites was admitted to the hospital where she is also employed as a nurse, and where she had been exposed to several patients infected with the CCP virus or novel coronavirus as it is also called, which causes the disease COVID-19.
“She was very scared. Every day she talked about being scared going in there,” her brother said. As soon as she was in the hospital, her situation quickly worsened, and Sites was put on a ventilator.
“Her lungs were pretty much failing, and at the same time, they had to get the baby out in order to save her and the baby,” said her brother’s wife, Kacie Jefferies. “In all honesty, we didn’t think she was going to make it on Thursday.”
The medical staff put her into a medically-induced coma and used extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy, whereby the patient’s blood is pumped to a machine where it’s saturated with oxygen before it is pumped back into the body again, to keep her alive.
Last week 29 weeks in her pregnancy, Sites gave birth through a cesarean section to a baby boy.
The baby was also tested for COVID-19 and was cleared of the virus.
“They had to wait until he was 24-hours old to test him and they tested him yesterday,” Jefferies said.
Sites is still in a coma. She has become a mother and doesn’t know it.
“She has been on the ECMO machine since Thursday, and every day she gets better. The doctors say she is headed in the right direction,” Jefferies said, adding that the family is optimistic she’ll pull through.
A GoFundMe initiative has been started to contribute to Sites’s medical expenses. It has raised $32,896 so far.
In an update on Tuesday, Carley Sue, the GoFundMe organizer, wrote that Sites is off the EMCO therapy, and showing signs of regaining consciousness.
“Megz is no longer on ECMO and it is out of her room. This is huge!! She is on the ventilator and they are beginning to decrease her sedation. She is starting to move her arms and legs, and we hope she starts to open her eyes in the next few days! This brings so much joy to know she is improving everyday even if it’s in the slightest way.
“Vitals continue to be stable,” Sue said.
